Timeline 1900 – 2018

1996Secrets and Lies (1996)

Secrets & Lies is a 1996 British film directed by Mike Leigh which tells the story of Hortense Cumberbatch, a successful black woman who discovers that her birth mother, Cynthia Purley, is a white, working-class woman.

Though the film itself focuses more on class than race, it attracted some discussion amongst viewers over the casting of Marianne Jean-Baptise and whether her appearance was representative of someone who had one black and one white parent.